Patriot and Woodbridge High Schools to offer AP Capstone program

Students seeking to take on in-depth research, collaboration, and communication challenges to build college and career skills will get new opportunities this fall as Patriot and Woodbridge High Schools offer The College Board’s AP Capstone program.

The program includes a two-course AP Seminar and AP Research sequence designed to complement the in-depth, subject-specific rigor of Advanced Placement courses and exams.

The AP Capstone Seminar is currently offered at Osbourn Park High School as part of its biotechnology specialty program and the AP Capstone Research course will be added next school year.

The College Board has approved implementation at Patriot and Woodbridge, which is a prerequisite before a school can offer the program. Both Patriot and Woodbridge will offer the AP Capstone Seminar in 2015-16 as a component of their AP Scholars specialty program.

The innovative AP Capstone sequence prepares a broader, more diverse student population for college and career success. This also provides teachers with flexibility in the curriculum to expand access to challenging course work and to further develop students’ skills.

In AP Research, students cultivate the skills and discipline necessary to conduct independent research and to produce and defend a scholarly academic thesis.

Students design, plan, and conduct a yearlong mentored, research-based investigation to address a research question. The course culminates in an academic thesis paper of approximately 5,000 words and a presentation with an oral defense.

“This program helps to prepare students to think critically about global issues and to develop academic approaches that will benefit them in future careers in the 21st Century,” Patriot High School Principal Dr. Michael Bishop was quoted as saying in a news release.

The AP Capstone seminar and research courses are listed in the 2015-16 PWCS course catalog. The seminar is a prerequisite to the research course.